London: Rain brought more misery at Wimbledon on Tuesday with Centre Court's £80 million (USD 125 million, 100 million euro) roof moving back and forth as often as the players.

The roof was closed on the All England Club's main arena in the run-up to the start of play, but then reopened just before Spanish seventh seed David Ferrer was due to begin his last 16 clash against Argentine ninth seed Juan Martin del Potro.

However, as heavy rain began to fall, the roof was shut once again, delaying the scheduled midday (1100 GMT) start.

On Court One, Andy Murray and Marin Cilic, who had begun their last 16 tie on Monday, played just one full game before they were halted.

However, the players did get back on on the outside courts later, even though spells of drizzle continued to drift over southwest London.

US qualifier Brian Baker, facing German 27th seed Philipp Kohlschreiber, seemed unhappy with the slippery conditions on Court 12, bringing the umpire down from his chair to inspect the surface.

With the weather forecast mixed for the coming days, Wimbledon chief executive Richard Lewis said he hoped the championships would finish on time Sunday rather than spill over into Monday.

"It's too soon to start thinking about that now," he told the Live at Wimbledon online channel.

"We might get two or three hours' play today; we might get a lot of matches finished which would help.

"The forecast is pretty good for the next couple of days. It's dry and we could get a lot of matches played over the next couple of days and the issue of playing on a third Monday would go away."

The last time play was forced over into a third Monday was in 2000.(Agencies)